Holiday Cheer, Day 25.5

This is kinda unfair to consider this "Holiday Cheer" but oh well. Kevin and I flew down to Pasadena for the Rose Bowl and we spent our New Year's with his parents in an RV park watching the special New Year's fireworks over at Disneyland. It was amazing!

New Thing #99: Canning Marmalade

Kevin's grandma sent us 50 pounds of navel oranges. We wanted to do something fun with them, so Aisha and I got together and canned 48 jars of orange marmalade!! Well, 48 jars is A TON of marmalade and it felt like we hardly made a dent in those oranges. Aisha and I each got a dozen 8 oz. jars of two types of marmalade (24 jars total). We made two types:

1.) Orange Marmalade (with lemon)

2.) Orange Grapefruit Marmalade with Ginger

They were both very good. I couldn't BELIEVE how much sugar went in to each. In just 8 jars of marmalade, 5 1/2 cups of sugar went in! That's in addition to the fruit's natural sugar! Ouch...

Holiday Cheer, Day 25

Merry Christmas! Kevin woke me up with bells this morning and we opened presents. It was loads of fun :) I had prepared cinnamon rolls the night before and Kevin popped them in the oven and made mochas for us to sip on. We had a wonderful, wonderful Christmas. After our morning un-wrapping adventures, we drove down to Salem and did Christmas with mom. Kevin made steak for Christmas dinner.

Holiday Cheer, Day 24

The office is closing early today due to the holiday weekend, so I get paid for going home and prepping for Christmas eve: wassoling, wrapping and cooking! So excited to spend time with Kevin and Sugar under the Christmas tree!

Holiday Cheer, Day 23

Todd Z's poker party combined with an ugly-sweater Christmas party.

Holiday Cheer, Day 22

I've never seen "A Christmas Story" and tonight is the night! I thought it had some cute moments but I won't be watching it every, single year for the rest of my life. But I liked the leg lamp side-story because Heather always used to talk about the infamous leg lamp.

Holiday Cheer, Day 21

Recession Christmas white elephant gift exchange with the girls! Kevin got a knit scarf that Vanessa made and I got a see-through flame shower curtain. Woot woot!

Holiday Cheer, Day 20

Creating our Christmas morning music playlist on Grooveshark with Kevin. Each song has to be paired with various music trivia. I'm trying to be patient with him ... he's being "christmasy" at least ;)

Holiday Cheer, Day 19

Jackie Mitchell's wedding plus christmas with Dad, Deborah and Thomas -- fun times in Salem! Getting all glammed up :)

Holiday Cheer, Day 18

Christmas with Kevin's parents before they fly south for the winter.

Holiday Cheer, Day 17

I got tickets half-off to go see The Nutcracker Ballet for the very first time! I took Kevin and we had a nice time. We started out with a quick dinner at Paccini's (on the ground floor of the Ione Plaza, where we used to live) then went to Keller. The ballet was fantastic! Then on to Dragon Sushi for a quick bite and now we're home. What a delightful evening!

Holiday Cheer, Day 16,

Will hand paint little penguin Christmas ornament and put cute picture inside it's picture-frame tummy. Now considering pictures ideas...

Holiday Cheer, Day 15

Playing "Christmas" Scrabble with Kevin. Way more of a challenge than normal Scrabble because we could only create words associated with the Christmas holidays. Highlights included Cupid (as in Santa's reindeer), bow, geese, trees (my "axe" bissected his "tree" hahah!), torn, train, hide, gold, roof, nine and day. The other words were reaching :) Very fun all the same.

Holiday Cheer, Day 14

Plan to watch "It Happened On 5th Avenue" tonight. Not neccesarily a Christmas comedy, but was recommended as a holiday film by the internet. We'll see.

Holiday Cheer, Day 13

I watched "The Bishop's Wife" (Cary Grant version). It was a little weird. I don't like the idea of an angel coming down to heaven and trying to seduce a bishop's wife. The movie jacket led me to believe that she fell in love with him ... well, the way he was TRYING how could a woman NOT fall in love with that? Just ridiculous!

Holiday Cheer, Day 12

Kevin's marine division holiday party and white elephant gift exchange is tonight. I'm bringing ginger chews, sugar cookies and gluten-free fudge brownies.

Holiday Cheer, Day 11

The day of the second annual Ugly Sweater Fiesta is here! I'm hosting my second ugly christmas sweater party. Kevin got this great Japanese cardigan and he's going to wear it without a shirt on underneath. It will be hilarious! I'm wearing my little Scandinavian sailor suit sweater. Also, very cute! Grand prize for best sweater is a Snuggie. I made sugar cookies and ginger chews and hot spiced apple cider (with brandy) and gluten-free brownies (turned out horribly but still edible -- with a spoon). Then I'm providing fuji apples with caramel dip, chips and salsa and guacomole, taquitos, veggies with ranch ... and I think that's it. It should be a fun time! I will let you know ;)

Holiday Cheer, Day 10

Making the gingerbread house and baking two types of Christmas cookies (sugar and ginger chew) ... yay for awesome holiday smells in my apartment :)

Holiday Cheer, Day 9

I'm gonna suffer through making a Martha Stewart holly wreath ... maybe ... If the holly kicks my ass it's going to be sorry!

(an hour later)

I made it and it looks really good. I used a bent coat hanger, ribbon, electrical tape and left-over holly berry sprigs from the Y.

Holiday Cheer, Day 8

I mailed all my Christmas cards today – spreading the cheer!

Holiday Cheer, Day 7

I watched "Miracle on 34th Street" for the first time and loved it! It would have been a good one to watch when I started to not believe in Santa Claus. The man that played Kris Kringle was very convincing!

Holiday Cheer, Day 6

I picked up my first mistletoe sprig and hung it in the living room. Now I'm trying to trap Kevin into trying it out :)

Holiday Cheer, Day 5

We had a wonderful time at Kevin's company's Christmas party. DEA served great food and threw a "Casino night" where we could play blackjack, craps and more with fake money. Kevin won a $50 gift card to McMenamin's in the employee raffle and participated in the silent auction and won the bid for lunch with David Evans himself! Also, this image is totally ridiculous because people were just playing and not looking all "OH my, I'm having the best time EVER!"

Holiday Cheer, Day 4

Heading to the Oregon Zoo this evening for Zoo Lights with Kevin... checking out the new lion exhibit and playing with penguins.

Holiday Cheer, Day 3

Bundling up and walking over to Coach's to cheer on the Duck's Rose Bowl dreams! Merry Christmas to Eugene because we won! SEE YOU IN PASADENA!

Holiday Cheer, Day 2

Take the MAX downtown with Kevin to see the Christmas Tree in Pioneer Square and use it as an excuse to walk around arm-in-arm. Oh! And drink hot cocoa from Starbucks!

Holiday Cheer, Day 1

Watched "A Christmas Carol" with Patrick Stewart as "Scrooge" -- Totally awesome and I officially loved it! Do you know that Patrick Stewart has a higher order of knighthood then Paul McCartney? Haha!